A lesson not to be forgotten

Post Chennai floods, what is needed is a scientific inquiry by leading scientists and technologists to come up with some answers followed by, for once, the political will to implement the recommendations.

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S. Muthiah

December 16, 2015

ISSUE DATE: December 28, 2015

UPDATED: December 18, 2015 12:29 IST

Illustration by Saurabh Singh

The sun shone bright after that first week of December when the fury of water would have even engulfed Noah's Ark. And as the sun shone, roads that had become rivers three-to-five feet deep were back to business again, even if they looked battered like a war-zone. The encroachers-human and mechanical-clogged the roads once again, shops on their vestiges did brisk business and there were more smiling faces than worried ones. Relief and rehabilitation began, although when and how the thousands of destroyed huts are going to be replaced no one knows. But even with the present recovery, it is no wonder that Chennai has been adjudged one of the most resilient cities in the world.

But does resilience mean forgetting?

Can you forget:

The retired Colonel and his wife standing on a table in a room, the doors of their house jammed shut, as the water inched up to them to stop only at the ceiling, their last cries heard by loved ones from a mobile phone that amazingly stayed alive until the end? And until that too died?

Or one of the wealthiest men in the city and his family being evacuated by boat from their mansion near Adyar, even as across the road people from low-income tenements and shanty-dwellers on the river banks were being evacuated the same way, demonstrating how the flood was a great leveller?

Or a hospital wall crashing down to let in monstrous waves that made even an internationally planned institution a tragic victim?

There are hundreds of such stories that will soon be forgotten by all, as will the grand spirit that much of Chennai displayed-thousands of volunteers of all ages challenged the waters and its stagnant, slushy aftermath to provide succour to the hungry, the homeless and the health-affected. Also forgotten will be the sterling round-the-clock efforts of a much-maligned police force, the fire services, hospitals, the military and other central government forces, many of them working in unfamiliar territory with no official local guidance.

S. Muthiah

But what should not be forgotten is what caused such an uncontrollable flood and how it should be ensured that it doesn't happen again. An inquiry here, a commission there, a witch hunt here, and how to do a squeeze there-this is not what is wanted. What is needed is a scientific inquiry by leading scientists and technologists to come up with some answers followed by, for once, the political will to implement their recommendations.

The rains were a welcome 'act of god'. All that happened after that were 'acts of man' going back years. Yes, years-like to the 1920s' reclamation of the Long Tank, a natural lake, to create Saidapet, T. Nagar and Nungambakkam, some of the worst flood-affected parts of the city. This example was followed by the reduction of 350 or so water bodies and tanks in the city to 30 or so, shrinking two of Chennai's largest marshes to about a third of their original size, and collecting crores over the last few decades, yet failing to make the city's rivers flow as they should. Just as man-made is the fact that not enough reservoirs were built to capture the water that annually flows into the sea. These reservoirs can collect surplus water when there's heavier than usual rain, instead of having to let the water from the rivers burst on to the citizenry. And last but not the least, creating a second-rate storm water and sewage draining system that doesn't get even third-rate maintenance annually.

This is a layman's point of view, but a layman who has followed a bit of the history of this city and what's been happening to it. But even then, I may be all wrong in the rough analysis that I have presented. That is why I appeal for a scientists and technology experts' group to study what went wrong in December 2015 and to come up with firm, implementable recommendations within a time frame so that Flood'15 will never be repeated. But even after the group's recommendation, what will be significantly needed, for once, is the political will to think of Chennai's citizens not as voters but as people who need the government's protection and care.

Dare we hope?

S. Muthiah, the chronicler of Madras, is editor of Madras Musings, a fortnightly English newspaper

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